Build Bridges, Not Walls

A pedestrian bridge in Miami collapsed on March 15, less than a week after its construction. At least six people were killed. Investigators are currently unsure why the bridge collapsed, though engineers noticed cracks in the bridge just days before. Despite this, they decided the bridge was structurally sound and allowed it to stay open, to tragic effect. Politicians around the country are making the same mistake of writing off crumbling infrastructure as good enough, putting American lives and the American economy at risk.

The United States’ infrastructure, from roads to railroads to airports, forms the backbone of the American economy, allowing goods and people to circulate across the country quickly and efficiently. Interstate highways carry 75 percent of long-distance freighter vehicles, which haul goods from ports to cities and back. According to Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute, railroads support over 1.5 million jobs and generate nearly $274 billion in economic activity, and airports inject over $300 billion into the economy from tourism alone.

However, failing infrastructure is constricting this flow, with decades of financial neglect piling up. Highways and bridges, which are on average over 27 years old, are falling apart, with the Federal Highway Administration finding that almost a quarter are insufficient for today’s traffic or are structurally deficient, needing maintenance or reconstruction. The average commuter now sits in 42 hours of traffic a year, up from 20 hours in 1984. American railroads have been beset by delays and derailments due to inadequate maintenance and lagging implementation of new safety mechanisms designed to limit dangerous train speeds. And according to Roger J. Dow, president of the U.S. Travel Association, airports are struggling to accommodate an ever-growing number of passengers, with airports projected to carry the equivalent of Thanksgiving-day traffic three times a week within the next 15 years.

Negligence of our infrastructure is coming at a time when China, our main economic rival, is strengthening its own. China has embarked on a mission to urbanize its population, and has made building new bridges, subways, high-speed rail networks, and other massive infrastructure projects designed to bring China together a national priority. And this investment is only increasing, with China expected to spend 12 percent more on infrastructure investment in 2018 than in 2017, as reported by Bloomberg.

Moreover, China’s infrastructure push isn’t merely internal; it is promoting infrastructure development in developing countries with its “One Belt, One Road” initiative. This one-trillion-dollar push is aiming to improve transportation infrastructure across Asia, infrastructure that will connect countries such as Pakistan and India to China. In doing so, China not only gains the benefit of new countries to directly trade with, but also builds diplomatic relationships with them. The One Belt initiative shows that Chinese politicians understand the immense value of infrastructure, an understanding their American counterparts lack.

American politicians once understood the strategic value of infrastructure. After World War II, President Eisenhower set off an economic and cultural revolution with the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. Under the premise that a national highway system would provide for the rapid transport of troops in case of a mainland invasion, Eisenhower was able to convince Congress to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into that system’s construction. Those very same interstates now crumble under the neglect of newer generations.

Despite the pressure on our infrastructure, the political will for potentially spending trillions on rebuilding is tepid at best. Infrastructure spending has been a talking point of populist politicians Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who rightfully argue that such investment would create jobs and grow the economy. But while President Trump has advanced his own trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, its emphasis on state funding and private involvement in infrastructure projects makes it a political non-starter to state politicians that rely on mostly federal money to fund them. Additionally, his insistence on building a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, a proposal which would cost billions while offering little in the way of economic growth, distracts from less grandiose but much more practical infrastructure improvements. Infrastructure simply isn’t a priority for politicians, leaving little incentive for bipartisan compromise on the issue.

The deeper problem, however, is American politicians’ unwillingness to fund long-term infrastructure maintenance. Ideally, maintaining existing infrastructure is vastly cheaper than allowing it to deteriorate to the point where it needs replacing. As William Reinhardt, editor of Public Works Financing found, every dollar spent on maintaining a road prevents spending $6 to $14 replacing that same road down the line. Unfortunately, maintenance doesn’t re-elect politicians. Instead, they turn to flashy infrastructure projects that generate media attention while neglecting existing infrastructure.

This effect is visible right at home. Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, pushed the construction of the MTA Second Avenue line subway extension. The relatively short three-stop extension cost a whopping $6 billion, vastly overrunning its budget and opening without the necessary safety checks completed. Despite these deficiencies in the project, Cuomo enjoyed weeks of positive media coverage. Meanwhile, maintenance spending has nearly stayed flat at a time when the subway is plagued with delays and equipment breakdowns. And while lack of maintenance funding has begun to be reported by the media, responsible maintenance remains elusive.

If the United States is to keep its competitive edge worldwide, it needs to revitalize its infrastructure with a two-pronged approach. The first step is to dramatically increase funding to tear down and replace roads littered with potholes, rusting bridges, outdated rail lines, and overflowing airports with modern replacements better suited for the present and future. Such a push would create economic growth, both from the construction jobs created and the decreased time wasted in clogged roads and highways. Raising the federal gas tax, which has remained unchanged since 1993, would offer a source of funding for revitalizing infrastructure.

The second step is solidifying these gains by ensuring the long term maintenance of infrastructure built in this construction blitz. The city of Mobile, Alabama, offers a blueprint. The city allocated millions to tackle a backlog of maintenance issues, ensuring that fixable problems wouldn’t become permanent. More importantly, city officials involved local communities in the planning processes for maintenance projects. This both helped prioritize important maintenance projects and, crucially, increase awareness of maintenance among voters. Mobile even created a website in order to explain the importance of maintenance, elevating a once-invisible task to one residents were aware of. By promoting infrastructure maintenance as an important investment into the community, Mobile was able to ensure that politicians could not and would not cut maintenance funding. By educating American voters on the value of preserving infrastructure, we can preserve the base of our economy for today and generations to come.